Tough Place to Fill Job Openings: U.S. Senate

By

Janet Hook

Updated June 19, 2013 1:37 p.m. ET

Both political parties are encountering a surprising problem as they prepare for next year's battle to control the U.S. Senate: Some of their top choices are turning down invitations to run for seats in a body with a reputation that has been tarnished by bickering and gridlock.

Both parties are finding their chances to gain seats in the U.S. Senate diminished as top-tier politicians decline to run. Janet Hook explains how a distaste for Washington gridlock is driving the competition away.

In states as disparate as Iowa, Michigan, Georgia and Nebraska, men and women considered top-tier candidates are declining to jump into races.

In Iowa, for example, the state's lieutenant governor, agriculture secretary, secretary of state and two prominent congressmen all declined to seek the Republican nomination for a seat in a body that was once considered the pinnacle of a political career.

ENLARGE

"As we would get together, we would say, 'Can you believe we are even thinking of not doing this?' " said Bill Northey, the agriculture secretary. But, he said, "we all had things we would have to give up to do it."

Late last week, Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), a sought-after potential Senate candidate, said he wouldn't run for the seat being vacated by the retirement of Democrat Carl Levin.

Potential candidates have always made career decisions based on personal and professional considerations. But these days, a recurring concern is that Congress is held in such low public esteem, and serving there has lost some of its luster.

"At the federal level, it's so partisan, it's dysfunctional," said Kim Reynolds, Iowa's lieutenant governor, who declined to run for the seat being vacated by Democrat Tom Harkin.

The Senate's chronic stalemate seems particularly distasteful to politicians who cast themselves as driven by pragmatic concerns more than ideology.

"When you are a governor, every day you can get things done," said Republican Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska, who declined to run for an open Senate seat that was widely viewed as his for the asking. "But you look at the U.S. Senate, you don't get the sense that people are willing to work together to do what's right for the country."

It isn't just Republicans who are taking a pass. Former Rep.
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
(D., S.D.) undercut her party's hopes for competing in her GOP-leaning state when she decided recently not to run. Democratic Rep. John Barrow of Georgia rejected entreaties to run for an open Senate seat in his state.

The recruiting disappointments complicate the 2014 battle for control of the Senate. Democrats have 52 seats plus two allied independents, while Republicans control 46 seats, meaning the GOP will need to pick up at least five to win a majority. In many of the states that are considered likely to be competitive, one party or the other has yet to see a serious candidate step onto the field.

ENLARGE

The Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill. Officials with the Democratic and Republican Senate campaign committees say they aren't concerned about people now declining to run because it remains early in the election cycle.
Getty Images

At this point in 2011, the battle lines were more clearly drawn. Nine Senate races had been identified as tossups by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and in five of them, the eventual candidates for both parties already were in place. Now, in the three races that the Cook report calls tossups—in Montana, Iowa and West Virginia—at least one party has yet to attract a strong candidate.

Beyond those are a set of states crucial to the GOP's potential for regaining a Senate majority—including Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota and Colorado—where Republicans don't yet have what some in the party believe to be top-tier prospects.

Democrats are empty-handed in West Virginia—a state they are at risk of losing with the retirement of Democrat Jay Rockefeller. They also are waiting for sought-after candidates to jump into races in Kentucky and Montana.

The parade of no-go candidates doesn't mean the supply of Senate hopefuls is drying up entirely. In Louisiana, credible Republicans including U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy are lining up to run against Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu. In Georgia, a crowded field of Republicans is running, and Democrats expect the eventual announcement of Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn, as a candidate. In New Jersey's special election to be held in October, Democrats including Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Rep. Frank Pallone have jumped into the race, and several Republicans are considering running even though the GOP isn't favored to win.

Officials with the Democratic and Republican Senate campaign committees say they aren't concerned about people now declining to run because it remains early in the election cycle.

"There are still an enormous number of people who want to serve," said
Guy Cecil,
executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that strong, lesser-known candidates often come forward after a high-profile recruit takes a pass. "There is always another card in the deck," he said.

Before deciding not to run for the Senate, Mr. Heineman said he talked to Sen. Mike Johanns (R., Neb.), whom he had succeeded as Nebraska governor.

"He's been a mayor, a governor and a cabinet secretary—those are positions where you are expected to perform every day," said Mr. Heineman. "In the Senate, you don't know what you are going to do every day. You come in, and at 4 p.m. they tell you, 'We're going to vote in one hour.' That part is dysfunctional."

In Michigan, state and national GOP leaders had urged Mr. Rogers to run for the Senate. But as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Rogers's responsibilities have burgeoned as controversies erupted over government surveillance and U.S. foreign policy. He decided his position was hard to trade for a back bench in the Senate.

"For me, the significance and depth of the impact I can make on my constituents' behalf far outweighs the perceived importance of any title I might hold," Mr. Rogers said in an email Friday announcing his decision to supporters.

In Iowa, Democrats have the candidate that many party leaders wanted in Rep. Bruce Braley. GOP leaders are facing a tougher situation.

They were particularly eager for Rep. Tom Latham to run, but he opted to stay in the House, where he is an appropriations subcommittee chairman and confidant of House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio).

Ms. Reynolds, the Iowa lieutenant governor, said that with grandchildren and grown children in her home state, she was wary of spending so much time in Washington. Still, she traveled to the capital in mid-March to meet with party officials who were eager for her to run. She was welcomed into the weekly lunch meeting of Senate Republicans, and she visited privately with first-term Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.), who shared advice about juggling the demands of travel and family.

But after she returned home, Ms. Reynolds concluded that she could accomplish more by staying put in Iowa.

Corrections & Amplifications Democrats are seeking candidates to join Senate races in Kentucky and Montana. An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to those races as being for open seats. Montana is an open seat; Kentucky is not. Additionally, appointed incumbent Sen. William Cowan (D., Mass.) isn't running in the special election on June 25 for the remainder of the unexpired term of former Sen. John Kerry. An earlier version of the graphic with this article incorrectly indicated Massachusetts has a Democratic incumbent running for re-election.

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